Frame - Windows In!

The Windows are In!

All our Double Glazed Windows and Sliding Doors have been installed into the House. I really like the feel of the Double Glazed Units, especially our Stacking Sliding Door. Feels so much stronger than Single Glazed Units. The site has also been cleaned up with the bits of wood and rubbish removed from the Slab. Looks much tidier now.

Now onto the bad news. We have a large 20 cent piece size of paint that has been chipped on our Stacking Sliding Doors which is a shame. We'll raise this on Monday when our SS is back from leave.

We noticed the the issue with the Load Bearing Wall in our Theater (Lounge) hasn't been resolved.

I also picked up another issue that our Ensuite is supposed to have stud centers at 300mm to support the Floor to Ceiling Tiling. This has only been done around the Shower.

The Carpenter also put in more Noggins today around the Theater Room, one of these has huge knots that have fallen out. We'll raise this with the Building Inspector and see what he says.

I'm not really happy with the height difference between the stacker doors and the Windows in the Family Room. I think we could have gone with a 2400mm Stacker and it would have looked better not perfect, but we were told that these had to be 2100mm max because of our 450mm Eaves, these were further reduced to 350mm Eaves. Due to having eaves all our Windows heights are set at the top of the Eave as such the difference between the top of the Door and the top of the Window are different. The difference is ~15cm with 450mm Eaves and ~18cm with 350mm Eaves which is much more obvious. But I realised as I updated this page.. There are no Eaves where the Stacker is it is just a flat Ceiling. I delayed updating this page because I was a bit down on the height difference. My wife tried to make me happy by saying hopefully its not so obvious with furniture and plaster.. but I am not so sure. And it can't be fixed without resetting all the heights of all the Windows in the House and installing lintels which will be $$$ and PD will most likely not do this. All I can think to do is hide it with some type of Window Pelmet. *ugly*

Looking at the following link for Standard Window Sizes and Standard Door Sizes,  I don't think there is any option in changing the door to fix the issue. As it will either be 15CM too short or 10CM too high, time to move on. Lesson learnt next time install lintels and set Door/Window Height to the same and have a 2700mm ceiling.

http://cdn-download.stegbar.com.au/pdf/Stegbar-Standard-Sizes.pdf

Front / East Side (Master, Bed2/3/4, Bath &Laundry)

East Side ( Master, Bed2/3/4, Bath &Laundry )

North East Rear (Games, Bed4, Bed3, Bath, Laundry, Bed2)

West Side (Games, Family, Study & Lounge)

West Side of House (Games, Family, Study & Lounge)

Alfresco, Games, and Study Windows.

Games, Family Stacker, and Study

Games, Family Stacker, and Family Window

Family and Study Window

Kitchen Looking towards Alfresco & Study. See the height difference??

Family Room Looking Out onto Alfresco

Study Window

Games Room

Master Bedroom & WIR Windows

Master Bed Looking towards Ensuite

Bed2 with a not quiet centered window due to brickwork

Bed 3

Bathroom

Bed4

Family / Alfresco Sliding Stacker Door Chip down to Bare Metal :(

Frame - Roof Continued

We visited the site again today not expecting to much due to the extremely hot weather (40°C). Our Portico Roof has been completed, the Valleys where the Roof meet have been installed. A lot of metal cross bracing support has been added to the Roof and Walls. The Internal Walls have been tied to the Roof Trusses and Noggins are being installed around the Theater Ceiling.

The issue with the overhang of the Garage Frame has been fixed. The solution the carpenter used was to block underneath the Frame with Treated Pine Blocks. One side of the Garage Frame this seams fairly sturdy, on the other side I'm not convinced of its value. I'll show the Building Inspector and see what he thinks next week.

I've emailed the issue about the Load Bearing wall issue with the Theater Room off to the BC today and she has sent this off to the SS. When visiting today I haven't seen any rectification of the Wall but I'd imagine the carpenter left when it got to hot around lunch time today.

Front Facade - Portico Completed

Front Facade - Portico Completed, Roof Valleys added

Looking at Roof Valleys on Alfresco

Portico Completed

Solution to the Frame overhang?

Solution to the Frame overhang?

Frame - Roof

We have a roof frame!

90% of our Roof was completed today with the only the Portico section not completed. What a change this makes to seeing just wall frames, now it is really looking like a house and not just a slab with bits of wood sticking out of it.

We were really happy to get a sense of what our 2590mm ceilings look like, I'm even happier that I can't touch the ceiling being 6'3". The Theater Ceiling (Lounge) is raised an extra 300mm higher and really makes the room look much bigger.

I have picked up two issue thou, the Theater Wall next to the Kitchen is supposed to be non load bearing, but the carpenter has made it load bearing. The roof trusses were designed not to require this wall being load bearing. This isn't an issue right now, but if for any reason we wanted to pull down the wall or move it we can't as the house will move slightly potentially cracking plaster. Email of to SS/BC tomorrow for this one.

The framing in the Garage hangs over the slab by about 40mm, I believe it is allowed to be no longer than 10mm. I'll wait and see if he fixes this up or I'll leave it for my Building Inspector to raise.

Our Window Frames were all delivered today and I was happy to see that everyone of them is Double Glazed and confirmed this from seeing the DGU comment on the sticker of the window frame especially after reading of another persons issue in the homeone forums who was supposed to get double glazed but had singled glazed units installed.

One of the Window Frames has a large chip on the paint that has exposed the bare metal on it about the size of a 20cent piece. I'll see if they replace this if not I'll raise it.

House Facade (Bellford) with 350mm eaves all round except Garage side

Front / East side of house

East Side of House

Rear / East Side of House

Alfresco, Rear / West Side of House

West Side of House, Lounge / Study

Garage with 0mm lot finish

Family looking towards Kitchen/Pantry

Pantry looking towards Family/Alfresco

Theater (Lounge) Raise Inset 300mm Ceiling

Near Master Bed WIR looking toawards Ensuite

Our Double Glazed Windows, Stacking Doors and Sliding Doors

More Double Glazed Windows

Frame - Walls

Walls up!

What an exciting day today. When we were driving down the main street we could see that all the walls of the house were up. We also noticed that all the Roof Trusses were delivered with the larger trusses sitting on the frame ready to be installed tomorrow from the looks of it.

With the rest of the frames up we spent a lot of time walking around getting an idea of room sizes and taking lots of photos. I was also looking carefully at framing thinking about how the future C-Bus system controlls and extra power points were going to be installed as we are doing these post handover while I was doing this my wife was busy taking photos of our DD in the house :)

The house just seems so big right now. I'm not sure if its just a BIG house or a bit of an illusion from not having plaster on the walls, but I'm really happy with the size of the Theater room (lounge), Kitchen, Games and Family areas.

Front Elevation. Garge / Master Bed WIR

Alfresco, Family, Study, Theatre & Garage (West Side)

Master Bed, Ensuite, Bed2, Laundry, Bed3, Bed4

Master Bed & WIR Front Elevation

Looking down side/back of house. Bed4 / Games closest

Standing just inside the alfresco door looking towards kitchen. Study is on the right side

Kitchen and Theater room (Lounge)

Bed4 WIR, also seen is Bed3 WIR

Study and Study Store (AKA Media & Network Cabinet)

Theater Room (Lounge)

Theater Room (Lounge) looking towards Kitchen

Frame Started!

We visited the site today and finally our frame has started!

We were all excited to see the new frame up, well 1/4 of it but it was the biggest change to date. The Master Bedroom, WIR, Ensuite, Pantry, Study, and part of the Theatre (Lounge) walls were up. The rest of the frame has been marked down in pencil on the concrete. We can finally get a real sense of size for the rooms. I'm also happy to see that our extension to the Theatre wall towards the Kitchen doesn't look overly excessive as I was worried it would cut to much into the Entrance.

Our 18 month old little one was running around with the biggest smile into each of the rooms dancing. I think she was happy to see how happy we were and it reminds us of why were are on this journey. :)

Can't wait to see the changes tomorrow!

Middle of House looking towards Kitchen / Master Bedroom

Laundry & Bed 2

Bed 2 Robe

Bed 2 Robe

Bed 2

Master Bedroom WIR

Ensuite

Pantry & Fridge cove

Kitchen

Study and Store

Theater Room (Lounge)

Bed 2 looking at Ensuite wall

Frame Started NOT! - Update

Yesterday also saw no changes on site. So today I called my BC who was on holidays, then called the SS who is also on holidays until the 21st?. I was then told that another SS is looking after the build until the first SS is back. So I called my temp SS to find out that my carpenter would be on site next Monday 14th and should be finished by 22nd of Jan. When I asked why, he said he doesn't know and he is just reading from the schedule that he has in front of him.. Sigh. Pretty annoyed at this moment.

I'll take solitude in the fact I was expecting the frame to take two weeks but it looks like he will be finished in a week so it doesn't push back the date I expected the frame to be completed.

Frame Started NOT!

The frame started today or that was the communicated plan from Porter Davis just before Christmas. After visiting the site today we were a bit disappointed to see that the there was no framing material and no changes at all on the site, we expected to at least see pencil lines. We have been eagerly waiting for changes to the site since the slab was poured prior to Christmas.

We will visit again tomorrow.